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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24238849">A Love Carol</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unbreakable_Vow/pseuds/Unbreakable_Vow'>Unbreakable_Vow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>3+1 format, Bisexual Donald Duck, Donald Duck is the Duck Avenger, F/M, M/M, Multi, POV Donald Duck, changing canon slightly to fit all verses together</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:00:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,433</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24238849</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unbreakable_Vow/pseuds/Unbreakable_Vow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>or, alternatively, the 3+1 love of Donald’s life: of past, present and future, plus one of the distant future</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daisy Duck/Donald Duck, Donald Duck/Gyro Gearloose, Donald Duck/Storkules, Gyro Gearloose/Paperinik, José Carioca/Donald Duck/Panchito Pistoles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>135</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Donald/Jose/Panchito - love of the past</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've seen two seasons of Ducktales in just a few days, and fell completely in love with it. So I decided to write a 4 chapters story describing all the loves of Donald's life, because our favorite duck deserves love and praises.</p><p>The story will take things from the canon comics as well.</p><p>ps: english is not my first language, and the work isn't betaed, so forgive any mistakes :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He will realize it only much later, when they’ve already fallen apart, what he really felt for them at the time. But right now, sitting here after a concert, laughing with Panchito at José absurdly ways to snatch them a free drink, he doesn’t get it. He only knows that he’s happy when he’s with them, that they have too much fun singing and playing in the Three Caballeros, and that he hopes they will never stop being together. </p><p>He feared, when he first started college, that he would feel lonely: it was the first time that he had been away from his twin sister, then only real friend he’s ever had, and his temper, he knows, it’s not something that helps him in the relationship department. Plus, he’s had an adventurous life since he was a baby, and he’s as much unlucky as his cousin is lucky - and just thinking about Gladstone makes him want to smash <em> everything </em> - so his lifestyle is not really something that could be considered <em> safe; </em>people don’t usually go they way to befriend someone that, with his disregard of safety and bad luck, can easily lead them to injury and peril.</p><p>Also, his voice.</p><p>But not José or Panchito seemed to care much about any of it when they first decided to befriend him, and sometimes Donald thinks they must be crazy, but if that’s the case, he’s so damn glad they are.</p><p>He met them after a  month of starting college, in a lecture about international relationships with near countries. Now, Donald’s American - <em> of Scottish heritage! </em>he always hears Uncle Scrooge say in his mind - José’s Brazilian and Panchito Mexican, and neither José or Panchito are quiet people: on the contrary they, like Donald, tend to argue more often than not, so that lecture practically consisted of the three of them yelling at each other and going to take a beer afterward, laughing and joking like they had been friends for a long time, instead of having met only that morning.</p><p>During that evening, slightly intoxicated, they all found out about their shared interest in music - something that Donald has always had, since his adventures with the muse Euterpe, his first crush ever - and the idea of founding the Three Caballeros was born at that moment. <em> Caballeros, knights, to honor Donald’s adventures! </em>Panchito said choosing the name, and Donald was almost on the verge of crying, never hoping that he could make any friends in such a short time.</p><p>That night, he wrote to his sister to talk to her about how amazing José and Panchito were, how happy he was, and how he couldn’t wait for her to meet them.</p><p>That had been almost three years ago, and during those years they had not only met Della - and she has completely won them over, so much that they asked her, on the spot, to be part of their group, which she had declined with a deafening laugh - but also his uncle and the whole family: they, as him, showed no sympathy for Gladstone, but Panchito had developed upon meeting him an absurd obsession for his eccentric other cousin, Fethry, which had made Donald completely jealous. Only Panchito’s reassurance that they would not stop being friends, and José’s jokes about how nothing could ever split them apart, had quieted Donald of his jealousy.</p><p>(He should have known, right here, but Donald’s nothing if not stubborn).</p><p>He thinks about it know, and more, when José returns to their table empty-handed, and Panchito laughs noisily in his ear.</p><p>“No luck, Carioca?”</p><p>“Give me a break Panchito,” José snorts sitting next to them, “the bartender was ogling the sailors, I stood no chance.”</p><p>“Sailors?” Donald asks, looking back and forth. “Where?”</p><p>“There,” José points at the counter, when a group of ducks dressed in sailor’s shirt and cap are laughing at something one of them is saying to the others.</p><p>“That shirt is cool,” Donald comments, looking, if he’s to be honest with himself, at more than their shirts - he’s known since he was just a duckling that gender was never a factor in his crushes, and those ducks, with muscles and strong jaws, are objectively hot, if not his type.</p><p>“Yeah,” Panchito comments, “I bet, with that shirt on, you could win him, José”.</p><p>It’s said as a joke, but many of their ideas start just like that: a joke. And looking at each other, identical grin slowing forming on their faces, they all seem to reach the same conclusion.</p><p>“Let’s steal them,” Donald says, and together they approach the group of sailors.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>It turns out to be less of an adventure they initially thought, because the guys had loved their concert and were more than happy to drink with them and, upon asking, to give away some of their own shirts to them.</p><p>(If, as a bonus, Donald has also seen their <em> very muscular chests, </em>no one can really chastise him for it).</p><p>The only problem is that, instead of looking smashing, they look ridiculous on it: the shirts are too large for them, going almost under their paws, and there’s no way, wearing the overly large shirt, that José has any chance to win the bartender over. But bless him, the poor duck takes pity on them and offers them a drink anyway, so all in all they record that evening as a success.</p><p>“But he was hot!” José laments to them, upon saying goodbye to the group of sailors and returning at their table. “Why I’m so unlucky in matters of love?”</p><p>“Because you don’t go for the fairest sex,” Panchito says, the more inclined of the three of them to win ladies over. “They’re easy to charm.”</p><p>“Not interested,” José says nauseated, and Donald laughs his head off at José expression.</p><p>“Do you remember Maria Vaz?” Donald says, laughing at the more for José’s new expression of pure terror. “That Halloween when you were dressed as, what was it -”</p><p>“- <em> Morcego Verde,” </em>Panchito finishes for him, “and she couldn’t stop looking at you. We bet on where she was going to ask you to go to her place -”</p><p>“- which I won,” Donald says happily, “and I was also right on how you would react.”</p><p>“Throwing punch on her face was not your finest moment, Carioca,” Panchito says, laughing his ass off, and Donald throws himself at him laughing all the same. “She just stood there, completely wet! ”</p><p>“You guys are not fun,” José says, “reminding me of that trauma.”</p><p>“Oh my,” Donald says, patting José on the shoulder, “poor parrot. <em> Tanta ma sorte! </em>”</p><p>“Your Portuguese is atrocious Donald,” José says with a smile on his face. “Please don’t do that again.”</p><p>“And don’t start with Spanish either,” Panchito says before Donald can open his beak.“ You’re good at many things Donald, but speaking? Not one of them.”</p><p>“You’re so good to me guys,” he says sarcastic, “I wonder how I managed to live my life without knowing you both.”</p><p>“You had Della,” Panchito says, putting his arm on his shoulders. “But it was a poor substitute for us.”</p><p>“I adore Della, but I actually agree,” José adds, putting his arm on top of Panchito’s, “and you were damn lucky to meet us.”</p><p>“And you me,” Donald snorts, but a smile is put permanently on his face, thinking <em> This is all the luck I need, </em>looking as his two best friends dressed in ridiculous sailor shirts and completely plastered, after a wonderful concert.</p><p>And he doesn’t realize it, even if in the future he will curse himself for his idiocy: how obvious it was that he loved them, the <em> both </em> of them, of a love that was not platonic in the slightest. How he felt when Panchito, the more affectionate of them, hugged him or played too much close to him on the stage, or how José had once danced with him the hottest <em> tango </em>in a club in Mexico, when José had brought them home to meet his family.</p><p>He doesn’t realize it even whey they kiss, after the night they’ve had at the bar, and do more than kissing once they’re back at their home. They will all joke about it the next day, saying that if they’re all so unlucky in scoring dates, then it makes sense for them to get a bit of action with each other, and that arrangement will continue until the end of college, when life and distance will separate them more than he would have believed that night, hoping against hope that nothing would ever change. </p><p>(But Donald will always remember them fondly, even after a decade, and will never stop dressing as a sailor in honor to that good memory)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Donald/Storkules - love of the present</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the other two chapter will not come soon, because I've jet to see the 3rd season (when Daisy shows up) and refresh my knoledge of PKNA. It won't be long, but it won't be short.</p><p>Thanks to anyone who commented, left kudos and such: I love you all.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time he sees Storkules, he feels himself go weak at the knees.</p><p>In all his adventures he’s seen and met many gods, semi-gods and general more-than-bird creatures, but Storkules is really something else. Storkules is the god of legends, of incredible heroic acts, and bless him, is hot as hell: tall, blonde, warm brown eyes, with an easy smile and a genuinely good attitude.</p><p>(He’s vaguely aware that Della is smirking in his direction, and that he must look like an idiot, looking at Storkules with his beak wide open, but he can’t help it: he’s thunderstruck by his beauty)</p><p>Uncle Scrooge is chatting amicably with Zeus, the god of Olympus, and Della, since Donald is momentarily speechless, is introducing herself and her <em> idiot of a twin brother </em>to two of Zeus children: Selene and Storkules. They tell them that they have many more siblings, up there in Olympus, but that they both choose to follow his father on Ithaquack to be closer to mortals, which they find fascinating. “You’re actually the first mortals to come here!” Selene says excited, “This island is so well protected! You must be special indeed.”</p><p>Storkules nods with her, looking at Donald with a friendly smile, and Donald feels like he’s about to faint.</p><p>“You’ll tell us your brave tale at the symposium!” he - there’s no other way to describe it - <em>proclaims, </em>like the duck of legends he actually is. “It will surely be a feast to remember!”</p><p>“Yes, you’re right little brother,” Selene says, in a more relaxed tone, that doesn’t fool him in the slightest - she may look less <em> godlike </em>that his brother, but Donald sees in her a force to be reckoned with, and his sister Della must think the same, judging by the admiration he sees in her eyes. “You must all be hungry. Let’s put something in our beaks.”</p><p>And Donald, still a bit queasy by meeting Storkules, is even more puzzled by how much Storkules seems to be interested in their adventures. He asks so many question that Donald struggles to answer them all, and the more he talks about their adventures, the more Storkules seems fascinated by what he’s being told.</p><p>And, most importantly, by <em> him </em>.</p><p>“Little you may be, Donald Duck, but you sure are fierce!” Storkules says after a very complex story about the lost pyramid of Sanaquakht, making Donald blush. “Seeing you in action must be a sight to behold!”</p><p>“Why don’t we see it then?” Della, his <em> absolutely idiotic sister, </em>says, and Donald gives her a glare that would terrorize a lesser duck, but of course not Della Duck.</p><p>“It sounds like a good idea,” Zeus says, and Selene nods approving. “A competition between our families! It seems like we’re matched, so I propose: me against Scrooge McDuck, Selene against Della Duck, and Storkules against Donald Duck!”</p><p>His uncle, of course, looks thrilled by the idea: a chance to flaunt his ego in a competition is something he would never give up. Della has taken much of their uncle, the same streak of proving her worth to everyone, so of course she’s also in.</p><p>Him? He’s almost not competitive at all. He knows he’s good, and of course he takes pride in being a good adventurer, but he doesn’t need to show it to everyone in order to feel validated, and he’s pretty content to let a competition pass by. But Storkules is looking at him like he can’t wait to duel him, and Donald can’t really say no to a duck who looks at him <em> like that, </em>like there’s nothing else he’d rather see that Donald.</p><p><em> I’m so screwed </em>, he thinks, accepting the idea.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>He never thought he could defeat a god, but they actually score an even match between the two of them, which impresses him anyway.</p><p>His uncle beats Zeus in practically everything, which enrages Zeus in a palpable way, but fortunately Selene is able to calm her father with a promise of a rematch between the two. Even Della and Selene score an even match, which Della celebrates in an impromptu dance with Selene that soon finds him and Storkules to dance as well, making him blush furiously.</p><p>The more he dances with Storkules - the more the god looks at him, the more they talk, the more he laughs with him - the more Donald finds himself enamored with him. Because Storkules is as much brave as he’s humble, as much good-natured as he’s handsome, and Donald is not the college boy he once was, confounding friendship with something more than that, so he knows that he’s falling hard for the god.</p><p>But how can Storkules see him as a potential lover? He may compliment Donald at every turn, and act as he’s enamored with him as much as Donald is with Storkules, but he’s a <em> god </em>, for duck’s sake. Surely he must have so many suitors as Donald has feathers, and Donald, heroism aside, he’s not much to look at.</p><p>So he lays in a bed in a Ithaquack guest room, his sister and uncle snoring near him in separate beds, and finds he can’t sleep. He wants Storkules like he’s never wanted someone after Panchito and José, and he feels restless and hot at the idea, so much that he takes to walk a bit on the beach, hoping it will help him calm his thoughts - the sea has always fascinated him, in another life he’s sure that he would have been a fisherman.</p><p>But Storkules finds him here, in the middle of the night, and to Donald’s absurd astonishment confesses the same thoughts that had been in Donald’s mind the whole time: how he thinks that Donald is incredible, how he’s sure that Donald must have already someone by his side, but that if he doesn’t, Storkules would very much like to -</p><p>Climbing a god to kiss him and shut him up should take more than the two seconds it takes Donald to do so, but he doesn’t complain, especially where Storkules <em> picks him up </em>- he never thought he would find that hot, but bless him he does - and takes him to his bed.</p><p>They stay there all night, and a good part of the morning, before his uncle announces that it’s time to return home. Donald feels like he’s waking up from a dream, not a feather in their right place, and before he can get in the motorboat Storkules takes his hand and whispers “Will you return?”</p><p>“Yes,” Donald says, sure of it. “Wait for me?”</p><p>“Time is not something a god is concerned with, friend Donald,” Storkules smiles. “I’ll wait.”</p><p>And Donald doesn’t give much thought about it, about how time, and many other things, don’t affect gods as much as they do mortals. They go to Ithaquack two times after that, and between Della declaring Selene <em> her best friend ever, </em>Zeus and uncle Scrooge becoming even more rivals, and time spent with Storkules, Donald feels himself falling in love with him.</p><p>But everything changes after Della dies, and Donald finds himself caring for his three nephews - that he considers like his sons - and on the outs with his uncle. He spends ten years away from everything, from adventures and love and Storkules, and it’s only when they return to Ithaquack completely by accident - and he doesn’t want to do it, to face the disappointment and understandably anger of Storkules for leaving him alone all those years - that he understand fully what Storkules had said to him all those years ago.</p><p>Gods don’t understand time. They don’t understand death, the numbing pain of knowing that a person you love is never going to come back. They don’t experience loss as mortals do, they don’t grow, they remain unchanging when everything around them changes.</p><p>And Donald will never be like that. He’s changed, he’s become more bitter and angry, more sad and dull, more disillusioned after years of poverty and loneliness, and Storkules has not even noticed how much time he’s being gone, because for him ten years are nothing but the blink of an eye, and loss and death something that can be brushed over with the next adventure.</p><p>And Donald realizes he’s being an ass, distancing himself so cruelly, acting like he doesn’t care, but there’s no other way to send the message across Storkules’ had that they will never have what they once had - not that Storkules seem to get it, with all his proclamation of <em> best friend </em>ahd hugging him to the point of suffocation, which Donald is still affected from, damn him and his beating heart that refuses to stop feeling anything.</p><p>They leave Ithaquack in a hurry, the kids laughing and joking, and Donald feels as old as his uncle, squashed by memories of what he will never have again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Donald/Daisy - love of the future</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Finished season 3 so far and I love Daisy. </p><p>Last chapter will be up tomorrow!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Donald sings to Daisy a song about helping someone achieve their success and feels like he’s the happiest duck in the world. Which is ridiculous, since they’re stuck in an elevator and are probably going to miss their chances to be on the IT list, but honestly, that’s something that Donald doesn’t find in himself to care about much right now. </p><p>Daisy is looking at him, laughing with him, and finding his singing <em> fascinating </em> , something that has never happened before - he’s received good feedback with the Three Caballeros in his college days, but that’s because both José and Panchito are birds born to be on stage, with all their playfulness and sense of the rhythm. Here he’s singing alone, without any instrument, only his awful voice; but Daisy seems to be delighted, which should be impossible.</p><p>He feels like he’s dreaming.</p><p>That sensation accompanies him through the night, after escaping the elevator, preventing Falcon Graves scheme, saving everybody, and when he’s on stage, when his two kids and Daisy are listening to the Three Caballeros playing. They don’t make it into the list, and Panchito and José are good sports and take the news with a smile on their beaks; Donald would usually feel angrier, but Daisy’s happy face is stuck in his mind and gives him a generally good humor that he can’t seem to shake.</p><p>“Kids!” Panchito says when the finish, going to Luey and Dewey. “Did you like the show?”</p><p>“It was…” Dewey starts, before his twin interrupts him. “It was good, before uncle Donald started singing!”</p><p>“Thanks Luey,” Donald says sarcastically, looking at Daisy, who’s talking with Emma Glamour and a few of the guests, all grace and good manners, looking like a completely different duck from the one who, fueled by rage, broke a vase on Falcon Graves.</p><p>“Donald, can I talk with you for a second?” José asks, and Donald nods absently before looking at José, and he seems - melancholy, somehow?</p><p>“Is everything alright?” he asks, worried.</p><p>“Oh, yes, it’s fine, it’s just… you should really ask her out.”</p><p>Donald’s eyes snap open in shock, dumbstruck by José’s words. They’ve had plenty of talks like that one in college, but that was before- and after that, in the few time they’ve met in recent years, there’s been no talk of things like-</p><p>“She likes you, and you certainly seem fascinated by her,” José continues. “It would be a pity not to.”</p><p>“No, I mean, it’s not -”</p><p>“It’s all right Donald,” Panchito says, coming next to him and José, having probably heard part of the conversation. “She’s a good one. Even José can admit that she’s beautiful, don’t you?”</p><p>“In a purely aesthetic way,” he deadpans, and Panchito laughs like crazy.</p><p>“Guys, guys,” Donald stops them, and they both look at him like that conversation is completely normal. And maybe it is. It’s been years, they’ve all grown up, so it shouldn’t be awkward to talk about new love interests to someone he considers his dearest friends.</p><p>And it would be, he realizes, if he had come clean to them and told them how he felt at the time. Something that he doesn’t feel anymore, and probably never will, but that he needs to let out in the open.</p><p>“I will,” he says in the end, “but you know that I loved you, right?”</p><p>José cracks a strange smile, the melancholic one, and Donald understands perfectly well what it means: <em> Things could be different now if only… </em>Panchito, on the other hand, smiles a big smile, and engulfed all of them into a hug. “I did too,” he says, “we’ve been idiots, haven’t we?”</p><p>“Yeah,” José says, “I did too, but no point in wondering about the past. We’re here now. And Donald, you’re on a mission!”</p><p>All three laugh together, before Daisy’s “Am I interrupting?” stops them. </p><p>Both his friends deny, and then go away, leaving him to talk with this beautiful duck alone - and he suddenly realizes he doesn’t know what to say.</p><p>“Good performance,” she fortunately starts with a smile, freeing him from this impasse. “Sorry you didn’t make into the list.”</p><p>“It’s fine,” he answers, “I’m happy you did!”</p><p>“Yeah, and on that point, I wanted to thank you. If you hadn’t interfere with that scheme of yours she wouldn’t have noticed me, and standing up on her to defend me was… no one had done that for me before.”</p><p>“You deserve it,” Donald says truthfully, and then, before he can change his mind, he asks: “Would you like to-”</p><p>“-go out with you?” she finishes, and laughs on Donald’s surprised expression. “Sorry, I’m too impatient. And angry, as you’ve probably have noticed.”</p><p>“I feel you completely,” he says, and they both smile in what Donald feels it’s the first spark of recognition, the moment when two people meet and think <em> Oh, it’s you. </em></p><p>Or maybe it’s just his wishful thinking, but when Daisy answers “I would like that,” Donald can’t help but to feel hopeful.</p><p>And so they go on their first date, then their second, and many more. Donald tries to not let his hopes up, but when he uses all his courage to ask Daisy to be his girlfriend and she accepts, Donald feels like he’s finally breathing after years of being underwater.</p><p>That’s what Donald really wants. After returning to a life he thought he’d left behind forever, after finding his sister <em> alive </em> , after being kept prisoner on the moon and stuck on a lost island, after an <em> alien invasion </em> and, even before that, passing from the life of adventures and life-threatening situation to raising three children, what he really wants is to have a part of his life that’s just normal. To have a beautiful, interesting and strong girlfriend, one who’s independent and has life ambitions, is resourceful, intelligent and caring. One who’s, in just a word, incredible, but in the <em> normal </em>way.</p><p>He knows - he’s find out the hard way with the Gene - that he can’t make his own family normal: but this, this glimpse of everyday little problems, of a predictable life with someone he loves, this he can have.</p><p>He craves it more than anything else right now.</p><p>***</p><p>Of course, at the end it doesn’t work, even if both him and Daisy really fight for it - and that makes Donald realize how special Daisy is, to do everything she can to stay with <em> him, </em> angry and unlucky and difficult Donald Duck, and how he’s a fool for ending things with her. He fights tooth and feathers with himself when he decides to do that, but the most rational part of him - and the help of his surprisingly mature children, who get he more than he sometimes gets himself - knows that they both are unhappy together. Donald has always been a duck on adventures, that’s never going to change as much as he wishes it was, and Daisy wants <em> just for once to not worry for you all the time, Don.  </em></p><p>Which is a normal request, he knows, he probably would say the same had the situation being reversed - and probably in less far polite words - but he’s never been a duck to sit still and let his family go by in dangerous and complex situation without helping them, even when he was losing all his feathers on stress.  But doing that means make Daisy worry, and most of all it means missing all the important parts of her life: she opening her first tailor’s shop, her dresses going on famous runways, her starting her own <em> firm </em>and then hiring a few competent journalists to give insight to the public about how her creative process works and ins and outs of errors and trials - which is a huge success.</p><p>Donald does everything he can to be there, but something always happens to make him come late, or not come at all. After a while everyone stops asking why Daisy goes to every public event alone, and many start speculating about how good of a boyfriend he must be, since he’s never there.</p><p>In spite of this, they manage to stay together for five years, which is the longest relationship Donald’s ever had and, to be honest, the most serious one. In that time Daisy becomes a dear part of his family, and everyone loves her - even his uncle, who grumbling admits that she’s a very good business owner - and he comes to love Daisy more than almost everything. But they’re just not meant to be together, and the more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes. </p><p>Sometimes he thinks that the duck he had desperately wished to be in his adventure with Gene, the one who had only normal, everyday family problems, would be perfect for Daisy, even with all his flaws. A duck living in a small house with his three nephews and sister, with an avid but after all caring old uncle, a 1934 belchfire runabout, going from job to job and with a big case of bad luck. But he’s not that duck, and he never will be, and in time he’s came to peace with it - he’s Donald Duck, adventurer extraordinaire, far from ordinary.</p><p>Even knowing that, when he and Daisy both decide to part ways, it still hurts like hell.</p><p>After that, Donald decides to sworn away love. If it didn’t work out with Daisy, then it never will. No one would understand and love Donald completely, good and bad, while still accepting that he will never be a normal duck. No one would understand that Donald is both adventures and mundane life together, always feeling a pull for each of them, and gladly share both parts of his life.</p><p>But everything changes when, a year later, his uncle goes to him with a mission.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Donald/Gyro - love of the distant future</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>alright, full discourse: I’ve been a fan of gyro/donald since the paperinik verse came out, and I don’t mean only PKNA but paperinik in general, even when he was just a duck taking revenge for who had wronged him as Donald in the comics. His dynamic with Gyro is just beautiful, and it broke my heart when in PKNA he goes saying goodbye to Gyro because things are becoming “too much for him”, so I guess you could describe it as a fix-it chapter.</p><p>There’s no need to be familiar with the PK verse, because I’ve twisted many things to merge it with the Ducktales’ one - for example, in this verse it’s Scrooge who gives Donald his superhero identity - but for the new characters mentioned in the chapter: Uno’s existence is well explained, and the others are barely mentioned, but I think everything’s pretty clear. </p><p>(And yes, I’ve left the original names of Uno and Paperinik, even if many of you know them as One and Duck Avengers, because I love their original names)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You can’t hide here forever, Donald,” Uno says with the patience of a saint. “Sooner or later you’ll have to talk to him.”</p><p>“It’s easy for you to say,” snorts Donald from the 151° floor of the Ducklain Tower, his hands pressed on his face like he wants to disappear. “You’re not the one who’s made a mess or everything.”</p><p>“You’re making more of a mess by hiding from Gyro,” Uno replies. “He’s been trying to override my system and enter in the tower for the last hour. He’s as stubborn as you are, you know that.”</p><p>“I do,” Donald sighs, “but I can’t talk to him. Not now. Not… not ever, probably.”</p><p>“And what’s your plan, old cape? To make him forget with those candies of his, and return back to how things were?”</p><p><em>If only I could forget it myself, </em>it’s what Donald would answer, but he knows Uno pretty well right now, and understands that the AI would take it as <em>if only I could forget you, </em>which is not what Donald means at all. Uno is one of the best… <em>Robotic Bi</em><em>rd being? Artificial Intelligence's Duck</em><em>? Whatever</em> - that he’s ever met, and he would never regret meeting someone that he considers a great friend. But before Uno, before Ducklain Tower, before Evronians and Xerbians and all that mess, he and Gyro had been nothing more than acquaintances, two parallel lines in Scrooge and the kids’ life that had never crossed paths. He was vaguely aware that his uncle had a team of scientists and a good head of the team - he was the one to make the Sphere, the gums with oxygen and food all in one that had saved his sister and him while stuck on the moon - and he’s pretty sure that Gyro had at least a vague idea of who Donald was, the nephew of his employee and part of the strangest family Duckburg had ever seen. And of course, they were both present at the Moonvasion, fighting in different parts of the city. But apart from that, they had known almost nothing about each other.</p><p>How he wishes he could return to that time.</p><p>Because Donald has loved many times in his life - the chaotic and confusing love he felt for his Caballeros, the dreamlike love he felt for Storkules, the hope for a normal life with loving Daisy - but this time he feels like this is <em> it. </em>The love singers and poets write about, that everyone search for all their life, the one you can’t recover for if you lose it.</p><p>The one he found despite himself.</p><p>That’s what he feels for Gyro Gearloose, the brilliant, incredible, completely mad scientist, who has completely stolen Donald’s heart without even knowing it, and that he’s currently forcing the door like crazy because Donald, fool as he is, had tried to <em> kiss him </em>and then, seeing his disgusted face, had run like mad.</p><p><em> What’s wrong with me?  </em> Donald thinks, almost feeling like crying - and he’s forty, for duck’s sake, he shouldn’t <em> cry </em>- his uniform sticking with sweat and blood and torn feathers, which is worth it if the battle he’s just fought really is the last they will ever see of the Evronians, something that Uno is sure of.</p><p>It had taken the best for two years, more intergalactic travels that he ever thought possible - and once upon a time Della had been the one obsessed with space, <em> if only she knew - </em>and him almost not sleeping, but in the end they had won against that silent and powerful enemy, one who had already enslaved more planets that he can count - he will never forget Xarion’s description of his long lost planet, the homesickness palpable in his voice - and took a sick interest on Earth. He had fought many battle, met an absurd amount of people, and in all of that, with Uno’s help, Gyro had been with him, ready to work non-stop for days in order to give to Paperinik everything he could ever need for his next mission.</p><p>And that’s the problem, isn’t it? That at the beginning his uncle Scrooge, when he had given him this dangerous mission, had been adamant: <em> no one must know who you are. </em> Evronians had already, by that time, infiltrated too many positions of power to trust anyone, and the whole family would have been in great danger if it ever got out that one of them was fighting the Evronians. <em> You’ll be like a superhero in space, </em> his uncle had said, <em> and Gyro will help you. </em></p><p>And he had accepted, become Paperinik, and started working in the Ducklain Tower, because his missing owner, Everett Ducklain, had been the first one to fight against the alien race - <em> when we were facing the Moonlanders, nephew, I’m sure of it - </em> and uncle Scrooge was sure that in the tower there was still something useful.</p><p>(He’d been right in that, at least, since they had found Uno; but Everett had turn out to be way more dangerous than they thought)</p><p>But that meant that Gyro had met and known him as Paperinik - even if that hadn’t worked with Uno, who has seen under his uniform and his disguise-voice device the very first day - when instead Donald had known and met the real Gyro Gearloose. Gyro, who had come in the tower muttering about <em> not letting someone steal his Sometime Tub again, </em>who talked with Lil’ Bulb like a friend, who couldn’t stop talking about his son Boyd - and didn’t Donald understand it all too well, the impulse of talking about his boys that sometimes was almost too much to squash - and who was always awake, mind going a mile a minute, formulating new ideas as soon as the last one was vaguely formed.</p><p>But also the one who had helped Lyla when her arm had malfunctioned to the point of almost losing it - even if she was made by a technology he had no idea of, in a very dire situation - who had started designing a body to Uno after the AI had expressed his desire to help them in a more active way - <em>No, there's no reason to call you Odin, Uno, you can have the same name in duck form -</em> who had traveled with him from planet to planet, and in one memorable occasion throughout time, in order to help him gather more information about the Evronians and help poor populations in need, even if he was <em> not an adventurous type, that’s the family McDuck, me? I’m just a genius. </em></p><p>And Donald had fallen, and fallen hard. </p><p><em> I’m worse than my sons, </em>he despairs, feeling like a teenager - something that his sons are not anymore, all grown up and going to college and being too much big for him to pick them up like he used to when they were just little ducklings - on his first crush. But the love he feels for Gyro, that mix of admiration and elation and a bubbling sense of happiness every time he’s near him is not just a crush, and today it has brought him to kiss him after their victory, when Gyro was looking at him with such a blind smile on his face that Donald had not really being able to stop himself before it was too late.</p><p>“Gyro is almost there,” Uno says, interrupting Donald from the thread of despair he’d fallen. “I’ve done everything I could, but that cockatoos knows what he’s doing. I suggest you don’t run this time.”</p><p>He knows that Uno is telling the truth, and that he’s right, but that doesn’t stop him wishing the ground on his feet could swallow him whole when Gyro <em> demolishes </em>the door and goes towards him, an absolute expression of fury in his eyes.</p><p>“What was that?!?” he almost shouts, and Donald feels his heart crumble.</p><p>“I… I’m sorry -”</p><p>“Oh no no no, stop right here! You’ve made me run here, <em> almost crush Uno’s system -” </em>he says, gesturing to Uno, who gulps in a certainly-not-robotic expression - “only because you wanted to, what, brood?”</p><p>“I was wrong, ok?” Donald snaps. “I shouldn’t have run. Uno has already scolded me enough.”</p><p>“Yes I have,” Uno intejects for the first time. “Also, may I suggest that you two go to the roof to have this conversation? There are too many breakable objects here.”</p><p>Gyro is visibly nervous, but still nods, conceding the point, and runs towards the stairs. </p><p><em> So that’s the end, </em>Donald thinks, going towards the windows, but before he can jump up Uno’s voice stops him.</p><p>“A word of advice, if I may?”</p><p>Donald turns back to look at him, feeling sadder by the minute, but he’s surprised to see that there’s a phony smile on Uno’s face.</p><p>“I’ve known you two for some time now,” he starts, “and don’t think I haven’t noticed what you two feel for each other.”</p><p>Donald opens and closes his beak, shocked to the core, and Uno continues. “I don’t know much about love myself, but I can recognize it when i see it. Whatever you’ve done, I’m sure Gyro will forgive you for it. But if I may, Donald… maybe now it would be the time to reveal your identity to him. He’s not an idiot, and I’m sure you couldn’t fool him as much as you couldn’t fool me.”</p><p>“Gyro doesn’t know who I am,” he says, deciding to address only his last point, because even thinking about Uno’s implication that Gyro wants him back is too much at the moment.</p><p>“Perhaps not,” Uno muses, “but I’m right when I say that he loves you. And it must not have been easy for him to grow feelings for someone who hides his identity.”</p><p>“You’re wrong!” Donald almost shouts, “Gyro doesn’t… he doesn't.”</p><p>“There’s only one way to know, isn’t it?” he answers, and Donald wants to curse his smug expression. “Good luck!”</p><p>He doesn’t dignify him of an answer, instead choosing to go to the roof, and, for just a moment, observe Gyro turning in circles like he’s ready to chew everything that stands in his way.</p><p>Hope, against his better judgment - <em> damn Uno - </em> starts to blossom in his chest. Hope that it wasn’t disgust that Gyro had felt for his kiss, but just surprise, that his mind had too soon codified in what he was afraid to see. Hope that Gyro really feels the same, that he would love Paperinik even when his mask is off, maybe even more because of it. </p><p>Hope to be by his side, when he despairs for Boyd, for Fenton, for uncle Scrooge. When he starts creating something, the beautiful and mad moment when his face lights up with a new idea, when he focuses on him with so much attention that it makes him feel like some fascinating subject, instead of just Donald Duck.</p><p>Hope for a lifetime with him, one that won’t be taken away by danger or incompatibility. </p><p><em> Please, I’ve screwed the last three chances I had, don’t let me screw the last one, </em>he thinks, and goes to talk to Gyro, taking, for the fourth time in his life, a leap of faith towards love.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I’m thinking to expand this ff into a series, but I’m not sure: for now that’s it. Thank you to everyone who left comments/kudos/bookmarks, you’ve made my day :)</p>
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